Monday, November 16, 2009

Pacquiao doesn't need to call Mayweather out

There's been a sudden commotion by Floyd Mayweather Jr. about Pacquiao not calling him out. His trainer Freddie Roach, and his promotor Bob Arum have been calling out Mayweather for Pacquiao before the Cotto fight even took place. Actually, before the fight was announced they were looking past Cotto towards a super fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, with all the talk, Pacquiao has not once said he has had interest in fighting his rival. He doesn't need to.

You never in boxing see the champion call out the mandatory challenger according to the ranking. But it doesn't matter, they still fight because it's mandatory. That challenger works up the ladder to get a shot at the title. Whether the fight is supposed to be close or a landslide it still happens. That's the case with this situation. Pacquiao-Mayweather is a fight that is going to have to happen. It just happens to be the biggest fight in boxing right now and possibly of all time.

Look at it this way: You have Mayweather, this untouchable boxer with cat-like reflexes, power, and the biggest mouth in boxing. As I said in the VLOG post yesterday, he is in my opinion the best pound for pound boxer and he is one of the top most talented boxers of all time. No one has been able to beat him. With that being said, everyone is always looking for a challenger that will be able to rise up and beat him.

Pacquiao on the other hand is someone that had started his career at 106lbs and has moved up all the way to 147lbs, the welterweight division. Most fighters you see do this become fat and out of shape. They generally move up because they can not maintain their weight. But here's the deal. Pacquiao not only moved up in weight and won seven world titles, a feat that no one has ever accomplished, but he also grew into his body and defeated three top level fighters in Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and now Miguel Cotto. Some might say that De La Hoya was drained, Ricky Hatton was overrated, but Miguel Cotto was a real solid welterweight. One of the top fighters in the division and he was not only hurt and stopped by Manny Pacquiao, but he was unable to hurt the Filipino ring icon and Cotto is a very heavy puncher.

So those are the two stories. Pacquiao is not only that challenger, but he is also a pretty favorite to give Mayweather his first loss, and as you can see, Mayweather is very intrigued by this fight. He's always showing his disinterest towards fighting of fighters, however, this time he wants Pacquiao to call him out because he sees that Pacquiao is doing to him what he has done to all the other fighters that have tried to make a fight with him.

It doesn't matter though. It's a fight that everyone wants to see, both fighters need each other in my opinion, so it's a fight that needs to happen regardless of if they want to fight each other. They're not friends, they're two of the sports top competitors of possibly all time. Make it happen Arum.

5 comments:

Makes no sense for the PacMan to "call out" Mayweather. Taking a public stance of wanting that fight instead of any other at this time would undermine his position for equal billing and money. He has to take the stance, and already has, that the next fight is with whomever his manager and promoter put before him. Professional postering, sure, but no reason to give Mayweather any extra ammo for a lopsided split.

I agree, Pacquiao is being professional but Mayweather is trying to use it against him saying that he is afraid. How many times has Cotto said he just fights who his promotor's put in front of him. I feel like that makes a great champion. They fight anyone, anywhere and that's what makes them held so high above everyone else. Put I do think that by Floyd doing this, he is clrealy interested in this fight and he wants it to happen, which you rarely see Floyd react like this.

No question Floyd is very interested, and just playing the money game. Sugar Ray Leonard did the same thing to Marvin Hagler and got his way because Hagler's managers were simply not from the fight game. Even though Hagler had the Belt they gave away location, ring size, gloves and rounds. Every one of those benefited Leonard. I don't think Roach will be so agreeable.

Yeah Roach is definitely what you would call a hard ass trainer. He really cares about his fighters, especially Manny, and he's going to make sure Floyd isn't getting any unfair advantages, especially when it comes to money. At the post fight press conference Roach said that Floyd's not getting no 65-35 split, and then Arum said well that's the first offer he's going to get ha! Like I said it should be a 50-50 but Pacquiao's going to want the larger money too. We'll see how hard this fight's going to be to actually make happen.

I still see Floyd having the edge, until I see different, but I think Manny has shown he is a lot closer now and it would not be such a surprise if he actually wins. For that to happen he will have to dictate the tempo, as he usually does, but can he do that against Mayweather? If he can, and makes Floyd fight harder for longer periods than he likes to, it could work. We shall see.